to hate it when people get colds confused with the 'flu

[wittyusername]

My MIL does this very often.

Me: "Hi, how are you?"

MIL: "Oh I had the 'flu earlier this week"

AIBU to think that if you really had the 'flu, she's still be very poorly just 3-4 days later? She does this to me too - I had a case of the sniffles, nothing more than that, then she's all aghast and delares that I too, have the 'flu

I know she doesn't mean any harm, but this detracts from the poor old so and sos that really do suffer from 'flu [sigh] - in the same way that I roll my eyes when someone tells me that they have a migraine when all they really have is a headache. Grr!

YANBU.

Only had flu once-I couldn't move for over a week,it felt like my bones had melted, the word painful was a understatement.GGGrr at hypercondriacs.

Lots of 'migraine' sufferers about lately too,is that the new flu? I know I go blind when I get them.

Yes Orm, but at least you didn't claim 'flu. Bad colds suck - they are hideous and you feel like death.

Oh yes, drives me wild too. YANBU at all. I had flu once, about 20 years ago, and I can still remember that my lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of walnuts - it was ghastly.

Noticed that Cheryl on X-Factor was suffering from 'flu' on Saturday. Yeah-ha. That's right.

Agree that things like Beechams Cold and Flu are partly to blame. Encouraging people to take two (essentially paracetomol) and carry on as normal with 'flu'. Such bollox.

Oh yes i hate that to, i suffer from migraines and they aint the sort of thing you can go about your daily business with to tell people you have one iyswim?!

I also get alot of people with coughs who complain of severe chest infction/pnumonia/pluresy i always feel like saying - no ask my ds what a chest infection is like, nob!

well there is a common cold which we ladies get and then there is mancold which is much worse well it would be wouldnt it then there is flu which is best described as "if someone told you that you had won the lottery you wouldnt even raise a smile"

Colds get worse over a number of days and linger on for bloody ages, but livable with.

Flu hits you like a steam train, but passes more quickly.

The two times I've had flu, I went into work at 7am and was on the floor, on my knees by 10am. Had to have someone to bring me home as there was no-way I could have driven.

They have an expression for this in France (nation of hypochondriacs).

You say that you are in an "etat grippale" (flu like state). It means jack shit other than you have a cold and want to make it sound worse than it is so that people feel sorry for you. Has quite the opposite effect on me.

We need another word then. If a 'cold' is when you sneeze occasionally then what is the word for when you're burning up (but shivering), dizzy, trembling with weakness etc for a few days.

'Bad cold' makes it sounds like "I needed two tissues"

I get aches all over plus a headache and alternate between sweating and shivering plus my legs kind of feel all wobbly and I have a light headed feeling. I usually take 24/48 hours off work and stay in bed sleeping, the time passes quickly in a blur. I am not interested in food at all and have to build my apetite back up when I am back on my feet.

I've always thought of it as mild flu rather than a cold as sometimes I don't even have a runny nose or a cough.

I usually get a bout of whatever it is in the Autumn/Winter.

How can it be a cold when I don't sneeze or cough ? As it clearly doesn't for the influenza description in its severity, what is it that I have almost every year ? Should I be working through it or taking time off sick as I really don't feel well enough to concentrate at work and I don't like to think I am passing it on to other work colleagues.

All opinions welcome......

I used to say this, when I had what U now know to be a serious cold. I recall then getting the flu for the first time since I was a child, and I thought I was going to die. No kidding! It went to my chest and I got a chest infection, ended up with 3 weeks off work.

Get it about once a year now, and it is a touch different each time, but each time I forget just how horrible it is and need between 2-3 weeks off work, 2 weeks just to start feeling some semblence of normality and the 3rd week building strength back up.

One time I had sickness with it, and vomited for 4 days, lost almost a stone in weight and again had 4 weeks of work as it went to my chest and I was very ill.

When I get a cold now, I can shake it off much quicker than before as I know the difference!

Agree onager!

I honestly thought I was going to die at one point. Couldn't sleep, was in so much pain all over, shivery, dizzy. Ended up with chest infection.

"'Bad cold' makes it sounds like "I needed two tissues"

You see that's the problem - people want it to be more than a cold. But it isn't. yes, colds are horrible, and sometimes they can make you feel like crap for a few days. But they aren't flu.

I have had flu once in my life, and i was bedridden for a week, felt like i had been beaten black and blue coz i ached so mucj all over.

TMMJ - actually i have been guilty of the whole migraine at the computer, because i'm an idiot, as soon as i start feeling better i get up and star doing things usually mning! then it comes back with a vengeance and i tootle off to bed again...

Ooh it drives me nuts! As-of-last-week-ex P has "flu" so often he should be technically dead. Even sometimes having "flu" in the morning, but having "fought it off" by the evening

A couple of weeks ago, he'd eaten some eggs for lunch, and was feeling a bit nauseous while on the phone to me. By the end of the conversation he was fine, and continued to be fine for the rest of the day.

A few days later he told me that he had not eaten eggs since, having suffered so badly from "food poisoning" the last time.

Very annoying, witty.

IMO you only have flu if you can't stand up and have to stay in bed.

Anything lesser, no matter how awful you feel, is not flu.

tell me about it

my bf dh is always dying of flu

i have had it once and went to bed for 4 days

was once told that if you are in bed/on sofa and see a £50 NOTE ON FLOOR - IF YOU CAN PICK IT UP YOU ARENT THAT ILL, AND DEF DONT HAVE THE FLU!!

YANBU at all.
Drives me nuts.

Actually thinking about it, I used to know a man whose DW died of flu - she was only in her 20's the virus attacked her heart and he found her dead in the shower

YANBU. When I was 11-13 I had about 4 bouts of flu and they were the worst illnesses I've ever had in my life.

YANBU.

The prevalence of fake-flu means that when you describe yourself as having a cold, people don't take it seriously. Colds can be vile and debilitating too! If you call in sick or cancel social plans on the grounds of having a cold, people think you're being pathetic, which is really unfair.

There is no shame in feeling knocked-out be a cold, but don't make it into something it isn't. Must go now; feeling a bit woozy, so I must be coming down with one of those 24 hour yellow fevers.

sitdownpleasegeorge

You have a virus. Also no fun but not flu

YANBU I had flu this year, was in bed for a week (during our summer holiday - mmm fun)and up and about only because I had no choice for the next fortnight feeling like the living dead. Then it turned into bronchitis

It really annoyed me that when I told people they had the flu I could see them thinking "yeah, right she had a cold". This was like being felled by an axe. Hated all those flu appropriators stealing my illness so I didn't receive appropriate sympathy .

When I had the flu three years ago I had a temperature of 105 and lost five pounds in five days. I was out of action for 10 days. Quote from the GP: 'You will feel crap for two weeks'.

I have never felt so rough and couldn't even cook supper for my children, who were small at the time. When they came home on the school bus I told the eldest (8 at the time) to get some cereal for him and the 6-year old until my husband could get home to cook supper.

Glad to see that I'm not BU

MY DH (who has arthritis) tells me he feels the same whenever someone feels a bit of muscle soreness and declares it to be (self-diagnosed) arthritis.